North Korea has said joint US-South Korean military exercises are a “provocation”, despite recent improvements in relations.

North Korea has decided on Tuesday to suspend high-level talks with South Korea, scheduled for May 16. The rightful justification for cancelling talks was Seoul’s initiative to hold joint military exercises with the United States.

According to information released by the media, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened to cancel the summit with US President Donald Trump.

The meeting between Seoul and Pyongyang should focus on plans to implement the peace declaration of the inter-Korean summit on April 27, including promises to formally end the Korean War and pursue “complete denuclearization.”

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“The military exercises of the South Korean and US air forces are an attempt to invade the North and a provocation amid the melting of inter-Korean relations,” the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

North Korea has said the US and South Korean armed forces are conducting a “provocation”, adding that Pyongyang has no choice but to suspend talks.

North Korea’s decision to suspend a ministerial-level meeting with South Korean officials is regrettable and disagrees with the historic declaration announced by the two countries late last month, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry .

“The North Korean decision to postpone unilaterally the high-level talks between the two Koreas, citing a joint annual air exercise between South Korea and the United States, is not in line with the Panmunjom Declaration and is regrettable,” said spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said in a statement. According to him, a request for Pyongyang to return immediately to the negotiating table will be sent to the North Korean authorities on Wednesday.

North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan said on Wednesday that his country is not interested in negotiations aimed at denuclearization of North Korea. According to him, rapprochement with the United States will only be possible if Washington really has an interest in improving bilateral relations.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies. He has an MA in International Relations and is interested in Great Power Rivalry as well as the International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East and Latin America.